Michigan's Cade McNamara not expecting quarterback battle with J.J. McCarthy in 'unusual' competition

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — After Michigan's 51-7 win over Colorado State, Cade McNamara said he wasn't expecting to be in a quarterback battle with sophomore J.J. McCarthy to start this season.

Jim Harbaugh announced prior to the first game that the two would battle for the starting spot with McNamara starting the first game of the season and McCarthy starting the second. McNamara was the starter last season, helping Michigan to an 12-2 record, its first Big Ten title under Harbaugh and a berth in the College Football Playoff.

«I would definitely say it's pretty unusual,» McNamara said. «It was kind of a thing I wasn't expecting by the end of camp. I thought I had my best camp. I thought I put myself in a good position and that was just the decision that coach went with.»

McNamara finished the first game completing nine of 18 passes for 136 yards and one touchdown with 61 of those yards coming on a touchdown pass to Roman Wilson. Harbaugh acknowledged there were some dropped passes, but when asked about his assessment of McNamara's performance, he was complimentary.

«I thought he was really good,» Harbaugh said. «He had a couple balls that were dropped. Pretty good executing, as I said, no issues. You gotta give credit to the quarterbacks as well when that's taking place on offense. Moving the football, score points and I thought he had a really good game.»

McNamara said that Harbaugh doesn't want to rotate both quarterbacks throughout the season as we saw some of last season. The quarterbacks are expecting the starter to take the majority of the snaps, but as the battle goes on, McCarthy and McNamara will continue to split duties.

«I was confident in the way I performed over camp,» McNamara said. «Definitely felt that way.